Tuesday 17 September 2013

The BEST No Bake Cherry Cheesecake


Cherry cheesecake has to be my most favorite of desserts. It's yummy, creamy, and there are so many variations of the cheesecake itself that the possibilities are infinite, literally. I actually used to HATE cheesecake, i did not like the amount of cream cheese flavor you could taste in them, but after the 5th or 6th slice, it starts to grow on you (in more ways than one) Now, I make a cheesecake probably once a month, just to satisfy my huge sugar cravings. 

INGREDIENTS

CRUST
  •  1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
  •  1/4 cup softened butter or marg
  •  1/4 cup sugar
FILLING
  •  1 package cream cheese (slightly softened)
  •  1 cup icing sugar
  •  1 cup whipping cream (whipped)
  •  1 tsp vanilla
  •  1 can cherry pie filling

STEP 1
Mix together graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar in a bowl until well combined and crumbly. Press into a pie plate. 
* I like to put mine in the fridge while I do the filling as it helps it to harden faster and doesn't break apart when you spread the filling around afterwards

 STEP 2
Cut the cream cheese into chunks, add the icing sugar and vanilla and mix until smooth and spreadable. 

 STEP 3
Whip the cream and then whisk that into your cream cheese mixture until smooth

STEP 4
Spread your cream cheese mixture over the crust as evenly as you can. Refrigerate about 2 - 3 hours giving it time to set and firm up.

STEP 5 
Spread your cherry pie filling over the top, refrigerate and enjoy later, or serve immediately.

Have fun stuffing your faces! :D Not to long ago I made one of these for my hubby who came home from course, as he has a hardcore sweet tooth and just loves cheesecake as much as i do, he ended up having maybe 2-3 pieces and i ended up eating the last 3/4 of it and believe it or not, LOST 3lbs. I was like, HA no way, I should eat cheesecake all the time!

Sunday 8 September 2013

WEEKLY ROUNDUP: TOP 5 DIY MASON JAR CRAFTS!

STAINED MASON JARS










 






DIY: Melted Crayon Art

This is my favorite art craft I've ever stumbled upon. You've probably seem numerous amounts of these babies on Pinterest & Etsy & Tumblr, and everywhere else. They are gorgeous, so much fun, easy to do, and the variations are infinite. I've heard of a few ways of doing these but my most favorite are with a blowdryer, and a glue gun. Yes a glue gun. I can't warrant that your glue gun would even survive after shoving crayons through it, but it's quicker and you can have more fun with it, so I will be showing you both ways to do this :)

MATERIALS
  • pack of crayons (ANY size you want) you could even go big and do the 94 pack
  • blow dryer
  • canvas (any size will do really but the best is to use a 16x13 pre-painted canvas, you can get them at any dollar tree store for 1-2$, so grab a handful 
  • a hot glue gun, and newspaper, LOTS of newspaper as it will probably get a bit if not VERY messy at times
STEP 1 - Sort Your Crayons


Sort out your crayons depending on what you want. The rainbow is a very popular and most easiest design, just place the crayons in the order of the rainbow. You can go darkest to lightest, or lightest to darkest, or others use different shades of the same color.

STEP 2 - Glue your crayons to your canvas

 making rainbow melted crayon art

Take a crayon on at a time and glue them onto the canvas, tips facing down. Put the crayons above the canvas first though to make sure you have enough to fit across the top of the canvas before gluing as once they are stuck on, trust me, they won't be coming off easily haha.



This should be what it looks like with the crayons glued onto the canvas. Now for the fun part

STEP 3 - Melt your crayons
This is the most time consuming step, as it can take anywhere from 5 - 8 minutes to actually melt each small section of crayon. Make sure your canvas is propped up against something like a wall, so the crayon will drip down the canvas, and double make sure your work surface is protected accordingly. Work in small sections and hold the blow dryer about 12" away from the canvas. It'll take a couple minutes for the crayons to actually start melting.



I've also heard of people using a heat gun as it produces a hotter air and it doesn't splatter it as much as using a hair dryer does.

STEP 4: Let It Dry




Once you've finished (should take around 45 minutes - 60 minutes depending on the size of your canvas and your particular design you've chosen. Let it dry 100% and then scrape off the excess dried crayon on the bottom of the canvas.

VOILA! your project is complete, and you can hang it in any room of the house as it is a great focal point and gives you an opportunity to boost about how you did it yourself :D

Tips & Tricks For Making The Best Of Your Melted Crayon Art Experiance

TIP #1 : Acquire a decent amount of crayons. Nothings more annoying then buying a 64 pack of crayons, getting home, realizing your short crayons, and have to go back and pick up another. BULK UP!

TIP #2: Remove all the dark dingy colors (unless they are incorporated into your design). So take out all the blacks & browns & grays, and go for happier colors like bright purple, green, and yellow :)

TIP #3: The rainbow layout is the best, and most fun as you can do the ROYGBIV layout, or use all of the same color but different shades. 
TIP #4: Using the lower heat setting on your hair dryer is the best approach as using the highest heat setting can cause more splattering of the wax than you really wanted to. Try not to wave your hair dryer back and forth as this will cause more splattering and direct your wax everywhere you don't want it to go. Also doing this outside is a great idea too cause then you can get wax everywhere and nobody cares :D

TIP #5: When the wax starts to drip down and you remove the heat from it, the crayon does trail down quickly, and if you don't like how they are thin then you can go over the crayon and melt it again for a more three dimensional look and keep doing this till your satisfied :)

Melted Crayon Inspiration!








Thursday 5 September 2013

Halloween Subway Art!

Halloween is coming! I am SO excited. It has to be one of my favorite holidays ever. It's so much fun to dress up, dress your kids up and take them out trick or treating, decorate your house, carve pumpkins, create baked goodies ALL month and get fat, and most of all, FREE candy! Now who would say no to that? A lunatic that's who. haha

I'm also a huge Halloween fan, so don't be surprised If after this I have a gazillion more Halloween themed posts filled with recipes, crafts, diy, decorations, pumpkin carvings and more :) I gave you a warning, so you can cut me some slack :)

I used to search the web every year and find awesome subway art to decorate my house with as it always looked nice in a frame, with a wreath, and some nice orange and black candles with purple lace around it and small little pumpkins and gourds ( I get carried away with decorating for special holidays ) and this year i'm like, "why don't I just make my own?!" I'm creative enough.. I CAN DO THIS! :D so, after a good day spent going crazy on my MS-paint & word program (PFFSSHH who needs Photoshop, i got mad skills!) I came out with these, I hope you enjoy and have inspired you to do the same! :D Happy Halloween Everyone!





Tuesday 3 September 2013

The Ultimate Grocery Shopping List



I've had huge amounts of questions asked by my fellow family and friends as to how I grocery shop. I've very particulate and I seriously get really agitated and mad when I go grocery shopping with other people who won't just relax and chill out, let me get into my zone and we'll be done quicker than if they'd just shut-up and stop complaining about how I'm doing things haha. I usually shop at wal-mart and metro. As wal-mart has amazing deals on almost everything, except meat, and yes meat at metro can be expensive too but they have sweet deals on bulk items like last time i went in and got 3 packs of pork chops with about 8-10 in each pack, and they were 9$ each. SCORE!

So here's what I do.

STEP 1 - MAKE A LIST!!
And I can't fathom this enough. If you have a list, and you only get what is on that list (apart from if you seriously see a GREAT deal you can't refuse) only then would you stray a bit, that you will save astronomical amounts on your grocery bill.

STEP 2 - WORK FROM THE OUTSIDE IN
It's a brilliant step. We start off with bread, to the cheese, to meat, and the dairy section, and get our laundry soap and stuff as well. Then we start on the middle isles going up and down EACH one, do not skip them as it will throw you off, I know it does me every time I lose my husband down the cookie isle or something and have to back track to find the guy and then I'm all mixed up. Very annoying.

STEP 3 - CHECKOUT
Seriously, as soon as you have finished and gotten your last item on your list, beeline it to the check out. Just get there as fast as you can. I used to skip this step numerous times, and ended up my eyes scanning around for items I could potentially find that are useful, like extra TP if it's on sale or something mean while I got 4 packets at home with 26 in each enough to last me the next 3 months haha.

Alright, the eau de resistance, I am going to provide you with my ultimate grocery shopping list. Prepare to have your minds blown.

Click HERE to get the download.


Now how you use this list (and even add to it to personalize it to your wants & needs) is in each category list everything that you and your family uses. Each time I go grocery shopping I sit down in front of this list, and since it has EVERYTHING we use on a monthly basis that I never miss picking something up at the store, or have to do multiple trips :) Happy shopping friends, I hope this helps! :)